Failing to keep tollbooth receipts could get you in big trouble

Users of tollbooths who fail to keep their tickets as proof of payment of road tolls will be compelled to pay 100 times the amount if they are unable to show documentary proof of such payment.

This penalty was revealed to STARR TODAY host Bernard Nasara Saibu by former Director of the road fund, Francis Digber.

This means, if a user of the Tema Motorway, for example, fails to keep the receipt given to him after paying, for instance, Ghc1 at one toll booth, but fails to take or keep his receipt, he could end up paying Ghc1 x 100, which is Ghc100 as penalty for his failure to prove he indeed paid the road toll, if need be.

Digber’s clarification follows the arrest of three tollbooth operators for stealing. They are accused of taking tolls from motorists without issuing receipts.

Their arrest and subsequent prosecution, which began on Monday December 1, 2014 resulted from a special surveillance exercise done by the special operations unit at the Presidency.

Starr FM’s Wilberforce Asare, who was in court Monday, reported that some supervisors of the tollbooth operators have questioned the arrest and prosecution of the three.

A supervisor who spoke to STARR NEWS on condition of anonymity said the toll booth operators cannot be blamed for the decision by some drivers not to accept receipts.

“If you give someone a ticket and the driver on his way throws the ticket away, then the national security would say the person was not given a ticket; that is where I have a problem…and that is what happened with the case in question,” the Supervisor said.

But Presidential staffer, Dr. Clement Apaak has dismissed the defense of the toll booth supervisors. He told STARR NEWS Monday that drivers who also fail to pay the right toll would soon be prosecuted.

“It is not only the ticket attendants that we are interested in bringing to book, the surveillance is continuing and very soon…both ticket attendants and the driver would be standing trial for denying the state the much needed revenue,” Apaak told Kwaku Obeng Adjei on the Starr Midday News.

“We are using this to warn both ticket sellers and drivers that the surveillance is now going to extend to include regular checks and we are not only going to be punishing tickets sellers…but drivers would now also have to show their ticket.”

Apaak added that government is committed to sustaining the operation and would ensure that it is extended to other parts of the country.